Part VII: Necessities

  Skyril sat up in bed, a surprised look on her face. She glanced around the room, and realized two things: her neck didn't hurt from when the werewolves had bitten her, and she was home, sitting in her own bed. She gasped, looking down at her arm and discovering it wasn't broken. She rubbed it up and down, stretching it out, not believing her own eyes.

  Climbing out of bed, she realized she was wearing her pajamas- the ones with little kittens all over them, and there was sunlight coming through her window. She walked over to it hesitantly, wondering what on earth could possibly be happening. Parting the curtains, she squinted at the sunshine and saw her neighbors across the street walking their dog.

  She shook her head. "This isn't right..." she muttered to herself. Sitting back down, utterly confused, she recalled the last thing that had happened to her. Skyril had been in the Nightmare's world, sitting on a borrowed bed. How had she gotten here? When? How was she no longer wounded?

  Something was wrong. It had to be.

  Skyril moaned and muttered, tossing over in her sleep on the bed, in the house, on the street, in the world of the Nightmare's as she dreamed the Nightmare's dream. And the Nightmare watched her, laughing at the thought of the fun she was going to have.

***

  Israel stood in the street, his arms crossed as he stared at a point in the air. NJ stood in front of that point, looking back at Israel and saying once again, "She's here. This is the exact spot. I can feel it." Her other hand was clutching Kallista's head, and the backs of her fingers were glowing with intricate, blue designs.

  "Well..," Gepard muttered, "she must be awfully small, I guess."

Raven walked around NJ and where she was pointing. Then leaned against a nearby wall and crossed her arms as well. "NJ? You do know Skyril's larger than an atom, right?" She raised her eyebrow at her skeptically.  NJ sighed, letting go of Kallista's skull and dropping her arms to her sides.

"I'm sorry. I don't know why, but it's that spot. The link between Kallista and Skyril led me here. I'm not sure what's wrong..."

  Israel nodded, "Alright, well then, since I doubt the Nightmare shrunk Skyril considerably, we're going to need to figure what's going on here. NJ? You're absolutely sure that you're right and it's that spot in particular?"

She paused for a second, thinking, then nodded, "Yes, it was that spot."

   "Ok, this means we're going to need to do some research. NJ? Take us to your master."

NJ blinked, and made a face, "China's not my master!"

Israel laughed, "Oh, I know. I've just always wanted to say that."

***

  Skyril crossed her bedroom and poked her head out the door. There wasn't anyone there, but she turned around anyway and went back to her bookshelf. Selecting And the Darkness Rained upon Them, the bookcase slid by, revealing to her, her weapons. She picked up one of the guns, checked for ammo, and stuck it behind her back, under her shirt. Selecting two knives with straps, she snapped them around her legs, and lastly, she hefted her mallet, a grin spreading across her face.

"Oh, how I've missed you," she muttered as she walked back to the door and exited.

  She padded barefoot down the hardwood floors, pausing only once when it creaked beneath her toes. She needed to fix that. Walking again, she came to the first door, a guest bedroom. The door was open so she peeked in. Nobody. She ran to the closet and swung the door open with a roar, but there was nothing in there except a few empty racks and hangers.

***

  Raven sighed happily as she gazed at China, then shook her head, bringing herself back to the real world. She knew China affected everyone the same way, but it was so annoying. NJ was talking with her, and her hands spread for a moment, then she shrugged her shoulders.

  It had been a quick drive here, and Israel decided it was best for NJ to broach the subject with China since NJ was already one of her students. Going over to her, they greeted each other with a, "Ah, hello there, Miss Maverick. How has your sigil practice been going?" And a, "It's been going well, China, thank you. That trick you taught me last week was really useful, but listen, I have a question to asked you and I was hoping you have some information." Then the two of the walked out of earshot, and Raven forced herself not to follow behind China, gazing at her fondly.

  Raven realized she was staring at her again and looked away irritably. Her gaze roamed from the books to Kallista, who was reading one in the corner, to Israel, who was pacing and trying to avoid looking in China's direction, to Gepard, who was just leaning against the wall and staring at China with a scowl as he fought the feelings bubbling in him at the sight of her.

  A moment later, Raven was watching her again, and sighed, impatient for NJ to finish her conversation. She walked over to the nearest bookshelf and read the titles, The Love of Magic, Orsiphith's Guide to Avoiding Wisps, Better Early than Happy. Walking down the shelf, she continued examining them half-heartedly until she heard NJ speaking. She trudged back quickly, hoping to hear good news.

  China had disappeared into the library, thankfully, and NJ was telling them what she had learned.

"So, I told China I had some very interesting information for her if she could help me out with any information she might have of her own. She agreed, of course, always happy to be well-informed, and I explained everything to her- about how Skyril was kidnapped and captured by the Nightmare and everything. Well, she didn't know anything about how Skyril contacted Kallista, but she could help somewhat with our other problem."

  "China said that she had heard things about the Nightmare and had read books about it. She explained that the Nightmare seems to disappear with whomever it has capture, but is actually still in that same spot."
  "So why couldn't we see it?" Gepard decided to ask the obvious, yet required question.

NJ nodded, "This is where is gets interesting."

***

  Having searched the whole house, Skyril sat down on the couch and looked at the phone sitting next to her on the coffee table. She saw there were three messages so she shrugged and put them on speaker to listen. An electronic female's voice echoed out of it, "You have... three... new messages. Message one, July 9, 2012, 3:27 A.M." Skyril's eyebrow rose at the early hour someone had called her.

  A moment later, Israel's drunken voice came on, "I so regret saving your filthy life." Skyril sat up, a frightened expression on her face. The sound of Israel spitting came on the recording followed by, "You killed them! It's all your fault. I should have left you to the Nightmare. It's your fault they're dead, and I... I," His voice got choked up, and Skyril stood over the phone with a horrified expression. Killed someone? Who was dead? What? What? "You're pathetic. You go 'round every day pretending you've got amnesia or something, won't even fess up for being the cause of their deaths." He hiccuped and the phone clicked as he hung up.

  The electric voice came on a moment later. Skyril sat back down, her head in her hands "End of message. Message two, July 9, 2012, 11:36 A.M." An angry voice filled the room, but she didn't recognize it. "I don't know why I involved myself in trying to rescue some girl I don't even know. I guess it was because your friends" he seemed to spit the word out with disgust, "thought so highly of you! Skyril Oblivion. This is Gepard Valk, and I want you to know I think you're a little less than dirt. You go around, day to day, pretending everything's great. You didn't even go to their funerals. What kind of 'friend' doesn't go to the funerals? I'm sorry I met you."

  Skyril's eyes crinkled up, and tears slid down her cheeks. She had done something awful, and she couldn't even remember. She shook her head, trying to recall and seeing a flash of a girl screaming, a building burning down. The electronic voice came on again. "Third message, July 9, 2012, 2:00 P.M." The voice was China's, "Meet me tonight at the park. You know which one. Midnight."

  Skyril looked at the phone and nodded, realizing she did know which park. She would be there.

***

  "Wait," Israel said as he looked at NJ with a slightly confused expression on his face, "let me get this straight. So the Nightmare exists through everyone's worst fears, but it takes the form of its victims for the fun of it and to have a physical shape, right?"

NJ nodded. "Correct so far." she said.

"Ok, then sometimes, when it has snatched somebody, it will disappear into another dimension that it controls while it plays with the person to its heart's content before finishing the person off and returning for more meat?"

"Yes," NJ responded. "Well, sort of. Ok, not exactly. It's more like the Nightmare has its own dimension where it takes its prey to play with. It can do whatever it wants there, yes, but it doesn't disappear. Not entirely, that is. It leaves a sort of a... Well, think of the Faceless Ones. Remember when they came here? There was a sort of string connecting them from one dimension to the other so that they could come back here after they were thrown into the other world. That's basically the same thing that happens with the Nightmare except there is no Isthmus Anchor because it doesn't need one. It controls the other dimension, and therefore simply leaves its invisble string and can come and go when it pleases. It doesn't usually come back while its victim is still alive or... sane, though, because if it comes back, so does the person."

  Israel nodded absently. "So where does this leave us? Do we need a teleporter?"

"Actually, no" NJ shook her head and turned, pacing back and forth a few steps. "China said this part was really hazy, and that there are several myths and even attempts a long time ago to try to get the Nightmare to return from its world for one reason or another. That seems to be impossible, though, but there are other myths that say people have gotten into the Nightmare's world. Of course, they're still hazy, but there is one fact that keeps springing up." She stopped pacing and looked at Israel. "You're not gonna like it, though."

***

  She had visitors. She smelled them coming a mile away, and if she hadn't, she would have sensed them some other way long before they arrived. Of course, she wasn't looking at them as visitors, at that moment because instead, they were purely meat, food, flesh, blood, things to fill her boredom if she could just get out of that tiny cage she was forced into everyday before the sun went down. She roared, her clawed hands grabbing and shaking the cage bars in front of her, the vampire trying to get free before the sun shone again. Alas, it was already too late, for dawn was breaking.

  The visitors had come early, moments before the sun decided it was time to get up. The vampire she was stumbled back, screaming in rage at its failure to escape the enclosement yet again, for skin was growing, forming bright and beautiful. It grew, and suddenly there was hair sprouting from her head. Brown hair blooming and falling to her shoulders as her eyes sealed over replaced with gorgeous green, human eyes. Her fangs shrunk last, and with a whimper, Bridget Whiplash was back.

  She sighed and got dressed in a t-shirt and jeans to appear adequately before her guests. The cage had already clicked open when the sun had risen so she stepped out, closing the door behind her and walking out into the open. Before she saw them, she knew there was five of them, and she assumed they needed something from her. Unless they were her friends, but the few she had were either living in, or vacationing in Australia anyway, so it couldn't be- she stopped in her tracks, sniffing the air and grinned.

  Bridget walked out of the Vampire Inn muttering, "Why, Kallista, you shouldn't have."

Kallista waved at her with a laugh, "I can never surprise you when it comes to steak, can I?"

Bridget grinned, "Afraid not."

Kal produced a plate of only-very-slightly-cooked steak from behind her back and handed it to Bridget.

"Mmm, breakfast," she mumbled. "Well, would you, um, like to come into my humble... Vampire room, and watch me eat while you tell me who the rest of these people are?"

  "Hey!" Israel said defensively, "what about me?"

Bridget looked at him for a moment. "Oh, and Israel, of course."

***

  Skyril sat on a swing in the park. She glanced at her phone. Six to midnight. She wished, then, that China would sometimes be early. Unfortunately for her, China tended to prefer being fassionably late. Skyril sighed, playing with a small dagger in her hand and started swinging back and forth. After the phone calls, she had tried to remember for hours what had happened, but could recall nothing further. She hoped China could possibly clear things up. She was worried that China herself was going to be mad at her for some reason or another even though the message on her phone didn't sound angry, but on the other hand, when would China go out of her way to meet up with someone like Skyril in the middle of the night to give her some friendly advice?

  No, there had to be some alterior motive for China's calling her. Skyril swung higher, wondering what she could have possibly done to Israel and Gepard to make them hate her so badly. Who had she killed? What was her fault? Skyril sighed again, trying to think about something else. That was what she had been trying to remember all day. It wasn't going to do any good to be distracted while she talked with China. Hopefully, China would have some insight into what had happened and would tell her.

  "You're here. I thought you might be."

Skyril looked up, startled  by the sudden voice, and saw China walking up, her black clothing bathed in moonlight. Skyril skidded to a stop on the swing and stood, trying to keep her mind on her questions at the sight of China. "Why did you call me here? I know you're not one to help a friend in need, so what's going on?"

China looked at her and shook her head, "No, and besides, you're not my friend so I wouldn't be helping you even if I was that kind of person. No hard feelings."
Skyril shrugged, already knowing that bit anyway.

  "The reason I called you was for two things. I wanted to see if you would come, and I wanted to give you a, shall we say, proposition."

Skyril looked confused, "To see if I would come? Why would you want to see that?"

"Because, my dear girl, if you had not come, it would have proven to me that you were faking it and you truly remembered. However, you did come, and that leads me to believe that you've been honest. You're suffering from amnesia, aren't you?"

  Skyril sat back onto the swing, looking down at the dirt. "Yes," she said, "I can't remember anything since... well, I guess it was a while ago... I don't know."

China nodded, "And that leads me into that particular proposition I was talking about. You see, there's this certain book I want. I need you to get it for me, Skyril, and if you do that, I promise I'll tell you everything."

Skyril looked at China suspiciously. Nothing was ever as simple as it seemed when it came to this woman, "What book is it you want?"

"The book? It's unimportant to you- only a title. The tricky part is where it would come from."

Skyril sighed, "Get to the point."

A smile spread over China's lips, "A small mansion in Australia called Elysium Asylum."

***

  "You see, Bridget," Kallista began to explain, "we need just a bit of your blood, if you don't mind." They were sitting in her room. There was furniture to make it as homey as possible with a cage in the next room. There were two couches, an armchair, and a coffee table. She was sitting in the armchair while Gepard, Kallista, and Raven sat on one couch with Israel and NJ on the other. NJ sat and listened, rather surprised this odd group knew a vampire, were even friends with her. Well, at least Kallista seemed to be, and Israel seemed pretty calm. Gepard, on the other hand was glaring, his arms crossed over his chest.

  Bridget took a bite of her steak and glanced at Kal, "You need some of my blood?"

Israel took over the conversation, "It's kind of hard to explain, really."

Bridget shrugged, "Alright, try me." She took another bite of her steak happily.

"Ok, you know when you have bad dreams at night? Well there was an actual being who caused those a long time ago. Fortunately, this Nightmare monster was locked and sealed, but recently, it has broken out somehow and kidnapped Skyril. We got NJ here to track down where the Nightmare was because the Nightmare can change into anything, even air, but when we got there, she pointed at nothing and said that was it.-"

"Well it wasn't actually nothing..." NJ trailed off when everyone looked at her, "nevermind."

"So," Israel continued, "we went to China for help to see if she knew any way to find the Nightmare. She explained that it has its own dimension and there's a string connecting ours and its sort of like with the Faceless Ones a while ago except there is no Isthmus Anchor and no way to make the Nightmare come back to this world. However, there is way to go to the Nightmare's world, and to do that, we need vampire blood."

  Bridget had stopped eating, the fork half-way to her mouth as she listened. Israel looked calm, but almost sheepish at the same time, wondering how Bridget would react.

 She nodded,  "... Alright then, sounds interesting. Just give me a minute to finish my steak."

Part VI: The Link

  "Ahh, Ireland!" Gepard stretched, being the first one off the plane, and feeling much more at home just standing on Irish dirt. The four of them had taken a private jet to get there, since you couldn't sneak weapons past an airport so easily these days. It cost a little more than a bundle, but he figured what had to be done, had to be done. Especially when Israel was paying.

  At that moment, Israel trudged up next to him dragging two large suitcases, three hat boxes, and the shoulder bag of he own. He grunted. "Why must woman bring so many clothes?" 

Gepard glanced at him and laughed. "I take it Raven and Kallista got you to be their bell boy?"

He groaned, "You weren't supposed to disappear so quickly, you know. You left me back there with the two of them." He sighed, said, "here," and thrust one of the suitcases into Gep's hands. "They said- and I quote-" Israel began mimicking a sarcastic female's voice, "'What? Do you expect us to carry our bags? You're the gentleman! Now go be gentlemanly and carry them for us!' Then the two of them ran off giggling." He sighed. "I think they said something about meeting us in the gift shop, but there is no gift shop. We took a private jet for goodness' sake!" He sighed whole-heartedly, "Honestly, they could be anywhere."

  "Actually!" Kallista chirped from behind Israel, "we're right behind you." Israel's eyes closed for a second before he turned around to see Kal's grinning face.

"What ever happened to the meeting in the gift shop idea?" he inquired innocently.

"Well," replied Raven, walking up from the other side, "we found out there isn't an actual gift shop, no thanks from you! There's just a little store that sells tamales. Don't get me wrong, they're delicious, but what I really wanted was one of those little keychains that says 'I went to Dublin!' so that I could pretend to be a tourist." She frowned.

"But you are a tourist," Gepard said quizzically. "You're from America... Aren't you?"

"Yes, but I'm still not a tourist. Everybody knows tourists wear flowery shirts and shorts. This way, I could be a tourist without having to wear those things..."

  "But the good news is," Kallista spoke up, "we came across your contact in there and thought we ought to introduce you to her."

"Wait, Israel's contact?" Gepard asked hastily, "Which one?" he glanced around, slightly nervous. Kallista's eyes narrowed.

"Ok, not your contact." Raven informed, "She's technically my contact, but now she's our contact. Speaking of contacts," Raven tilted her head, "do you think I would look good with contacts?"

"Your contact? You have a contact?"

"Well, yeah, of course. Doesn't everybody these days?" Raven grinned. "Her name is NJ Marverick. I called her up before we came here, thinking she might be able to help us locate Skyril. She's waiting over there, by the way."

  Gepard sighed, realieved that is wasn't one of Israel's contacts- the one who liked machetes- whom he had once gotten on the bad side of. He glanced over where Raven was pointing and saw a tall, slim woman with brown hair to her shoulders. She was wearing a knee-length black jacket, white shirt, vest, jeans and boots, and she was leaning against a small building called, "Tommy's Tamales". There was a sleek, black car parked beside her.

  "Hmm," Israel muttered, "NJ Maverick, you say? I've heard of her. She's a sigil user, isn't she? Student to China. Yes, she ought to be helpful."

Raven grinned, "I thought so too. Now let's go!"

  "So, let's get the obvious stuff out of the way first." Israel began their miniature conference at the hotel, having done introductions at the airport and driven here, where they checked in and rested for an hour, "Skyril Oblivion was hunting Ominous Ebony, a thief and con artist here in Dublin, Ireland. Skyril then went missing, captured by the Nightmare itself. Whether this was Ominous's doing remains unknown. Skyril, having been hurt and possibly tortured by this Nightmare, was able to send a message to Kallista in her dream to inform her of what had happened. How she sent this message is unknown." Israel started pacing as he recited the facts. "The Nightmare was locked away years ago in a bracelet, and as such, kept from further harming the world but for the ripple affect caused by past happenings. How, exactly it was trapped and kept sealed in the bracelet remains unknown. However, if the Nightmare was so released as we think, it will run around causing general havoc and horrors upon its victims until there's no one left. The Nightmare is said to be able to transform into or navigate through anything, such as air. Therefore, how to- if it's even possible- track it remains unknown.... I think that covers all the bases."

  Raven stood up, "Yes," she said, "almost, anyway. You see, I had been thinking about how we were going to track it down, and that's when I thought of NJ here," she gestured to where Miss Maverick sat. "She's uses sigils as China does, and she can also track someone very well. Unfortunately, she needs something extremely important as a link to the person she's tracking, and I'm not sure if we have anything good enough. I looked through the room Skyril occasionally uses at Elysium Asylum, but there wasn't anything good enough." She shrugged slightly, "So I'm not sure if we can take that route after all or not."

  "Wait a second," Kallista commented "I know where she lives. We can go there. I mean, we'll have to get through the loads of security, but surely we bunch of friendly, magical thieves can figure something out." She grinned.

"2015 Misty Ave. Dublin, Ireland. This is it," Gepard said. The house they were looking at was two stories high with a white picket fence and a doghouse off to the side. There was a big oak tree and clusters of purple and emerald flowers around the house, and on the fence was a sign that read, "Beware of dog." But someone had scribbled in 'invisible' before 'dog'. All the other houses on the road were set back from this one, like they were giving it a wide berth. Gepard didn't have a clue as to why, though. It looked downright quaint in his opinion.

  They got out and walked up to the fence. There was a mailbox by the picket gate that had extra mail about to spill out, and Kallista explained, "Skyril sometimes doesn't visit home much when she's on a case. I'd say she's been gone for... a week?" Israel opened the gate, and began walking up the small path to the door, looking over at the doghouse cautiously. A bark suddenly sounded from it, followed by another with growls and angry mutterings. Israel retreated a few steps, and it stopped. Kallista laughed, "I love watching people do that! " and walked right up to the door, ignoring the sound affects coming from the doghouse.

"A fake dog?" NJ asked, skeptical. Gepard pointed at the "Beware of Dog" sign.

"I guess that's what they meant by 'invisible.'"

"Yeah," Kallista grinned, "come here and see." She pointed to the front door, and everyone walked over to her and saw a sign on the door. It read: I'm actually a cat person. Got'cha!

Raven laughed "That is so like Skyril!"

  "I know, right?" Kallista grinned. "Oh, and by the way? There aren't really any security measures. I was just joking." She stepped back. "There's actually a key under this mat." She nodded towards it, and Gepard lift up the mat, revealing a key laying underneath. His eyebrows raised slightly, thinking this was going to be too easy, but shrugged. He went to the door, stuck the key in and fiddled with it a moment before it turned. Kallista was now several paces back and watching, giggling every now and then. Raven noticed and joined her, "What's going to happen?" She whispered.  Kallista chuckled again.

"Just watch. This is going to be brilliant."

  Gepard placed his hand on the doorknob. He almost didn't open it, his better judgement shouting at him to be more cautious, but he shrugged again and did. With a wild, angry howl, a black creature flew out at him, and he yelped, leaping back, as NJ already pressed her palms together, and Israel took his shotgun in hand. He almost shot it, but stopped seconds before as he looked down at the stuffed kitten on the ground. Gepard put one hand on the wall, and one on his chest, trying to calm his sudden, quick breathing. Israel sighed, looking at Kallista and Raven bent over with laughter three yards back.

"Securety precautions, huh?"

  Skyril's house was -more than anything- comfortable. There was a couch and armchair in the living room with a tv on the wall. There was a stand with pictures on it, and a little cat figurine, and in the kitchen, there were cookbooks and pots and pans and ingredients in the cupboard all organized accordingly. Israel, Kallista, Raven, Gepard, and NJ walked around, looking for something important.  Gepard went from the kitchen, to the garage, to the dining room, before coming into the living room. He looked around, appreciating the fact that the house wasn't for show or luxury, but just simple comfort. He saw Kallista to one side looking at pictures, and walked over to her.

  "Have you found anything yet?" he asked. She was looking down at one particular picture, and Gepard recognized Kallista and the girl he assumed was Skyril smiling up at them, and they were both soaking wet. Kallista's hand ran across her face before she turned around, "No," she said, "Not yet." Her voice was grim, Gepard could tell she had been crying.

"That's a nice photo," he said gently and put his arm around her. She nodded quietly.

"It was taken just a few months ago. Skyril was stuck on this one case, unable to locate somebody, and she was chatting with me absently when I said something that gave her an idea. Together, we tracked him down and arrested him. Right afterwords, it was raining, and we were celebrating. We ran outside, danced in the rain and bought a dozen cupcakes that we ate right then. It was... It was really-" her voice choked up, "fun..."

  Gepard nodded and hugged her. "She sounds really great. I can't wait to meet her. You know we'll find her, right? We'll find something to help NJ track her down, and we'll find her."

Kallista nodded, staring at the carpet at her feet.

"Come on," he said, trying to get her mind off of Skyril, "why don't we check upstairs, see if we see something?"

"Ok..," she muttered. Then she looked up, suddenly having an idea, "I think I know what we can use! In her room there's a photo of someone really important to her- he was basically a father to her. You think that will be good enough for NJ to use?

Gepard grinned, "It might be! Come on, let's go check!"

  They ran upstairs, Kallista leading the way to Skyril's bedroom. Gepard paused outside the door, hesitating "I feel like I'm about to look in someone else's fridge..."

Kallista rolled her eyes, "Oh, come on, it's not like you have to tell Skyril you went in her bedroom when you meet her, you know!" She smiled, back to her old self again.

Gepard nodded, "True, true... It still feels awkward, though... going into some girl's bedroom."  He turned slightly pink.

Kallista laughed, "Besides," she explained, "Even if she does find out, the worst that will happen is a smack in the head with a mallet."

Gepard looked at her, "A... a mallet?"

"Mm-hm. She's quite fond of them." Gepard swallowed hard, and Kallista grabbed his arm and yanked him after her into the bedroom.

  The carpet was lush and soft, and the walls were painted a deep purple. Skyril's bed lay on one side of the room, and on the rest of the walls, aside from windows, there were rows of bookcases stacked with all kinds of books and photographs. Gepard walked around, admiring the collection. "Hey, she has And the Darkness Rained upon Them!" he said. "I've been meaning to read that too... Kal ignored him, and walked straight over to a picture on one of the shelves. It was faded, and somewhat old. It was a picture of an older man with white hair, the greenest eyes Gepard had ever seen, and a smile.

  "Who is it?" he asked.

"This is Vivacious Fog. He was a father to Skyril a long time ago."

"Whatever happened to him?"

"He was murdered."

"... Oh."

She picked up the picture and turned, "We should take this back to NJ."

Gepard nodded, his hand on the spine of And the Darkness Rained upon Them. "Let me just look at this real quick." He pulled the book, and it stuck half way. Suddenly, a rumbling sound came, and one of the bookcase slid over to reveal a rack of knives and few guns with a special stand where a silver mallet was placed. Kallista chuckled, saying "Yeah, Skyril has secret little levers all over the place with things like this. She keeps them hidden for those times when she has to pretend to be a normal person and invite her neighbors over or something.

".. Wow," Gep mumbled, looking over the weapons. Kallista pushed the book back in, and the book shelf slid over once more.

  The two of them walked downstairs, gathering the others as they went. When they reached the living room, Kallista informed them, "Ok, I think we found what we need." Israel, NJ, and Raven watched as Kallista held up the picture frame. "This person was really important to Skyril. She always spoke of him fondly."

Israel glanced at NJ Maverick "Want to give it a shot?"
She nodded, and placed her fingertips on it as she closed her eyes.. Little designs appeared on the backs of her fingers, glowing a gentle blue. After a moment, she opened her eyes and sighed.

"It's not going to work. I can tell that it's really important to her, but it doesn't link to her the way I need it to."

  They all frowned, and Israel sat down on the couch, thinking. "Hmm," he muttered, "we need a link to Skyril, and yet there seems to be nothing here that is extremely valuable to her. Could you describe again what exactly we need, NJ?"

"Well," she said, "it could be anything really, but it has to be some... Oh, how do I describe it? Something that... connects.. Skyril's mind to what matters to her most."

"What matters to her most..." muttered Israel, his hand absently stroking his stubble. Kallista sat beside him, disappointed the picture hadn't work. Israel's head turned slightly towards her. He looked up then, stood, and grinned. "I think I have the answer, NJ. What matters to Skyril the most? Her friends. Not only that, but she formed some kind of... mental or magical bond of some sort when she contacted Kallista in her dream. I'm not sure how she did it, but she did. Can you use Kallista as the link?"

NJ blinked, "Well, yes, people can link to other people too. Let me try it out."

"Wait," Kallista looked up , surprise showing on her face, "you think I'm the link? How could I be the link?"

  NJ ignored her question and placed her fingertips on Kallista's head. Raven laughed, looking at it. "It looks like she's about to read your mind or something."

"In a way, I am," NJ responded, her eyes closed. "I'm searching for the connection between the two of you, two friends connected closely to one another..., but don't worry," she said with a half-smile, "I don't actually hear your thoughts."

Kallista sighed, "Good, because that would be awkwar- Wait! I was just thinking 'Oh no, can she see what I'm thinking?' You are reading my thought, aren't you?"

NJ grinned, opening her eyes. She ignored Kallista's question again, saying "I've got it. The link is there, just like Israel said."

He fist-pumped. "Yes! Admit it, I'm brilliant."

Part V: Preparation

  I heard screaming. What's going on?" Dragona walked in on Kal, Raven, and Israel in the library. He looked down at Kallista and Raven who were still laughing on the floor, then looked at Israel. Israel wondered what screaming Dragona was talking about, then realized he was referring to Kallista outside his door... about an hour ago.

"Oh," he said, not in the mood for explaining things. "Various things, actually. I was about to go get you as a matter of fact. Kal and Raven have decided on having a library party. Want to join?" Israel's expression was serious, looking at Dragona. Kallista had finally stopped giggling and helped Raven to her feet to stare at Dragona. Her expression was slightly quizzical, trying to remember when she and Raven had decided on a library party. Raven's grin got a bit wider, but she didn't say anything.

"A... library party?"

"Yes," Israel replied calmly, "With little hats and silent reading sessions of romance novels."

Kallista cheered, "That's sounds fun!"

Israel went on, "They thought it would be a very enjoyable event for everyone of Elysium Asylum. They were actually especially ardent in making sure you got an invite. They tell me that romance novels are your favorite."

Dragona's eyes grew wide, "Romance novels?" He coughed, "No, uh, of course not... romance novels are for girls.... of course... Anyway, um, uh, I unfortunately have some business in, um... Bhutan... wherever that is...." he nodded slightly.

"Hey!" Kallista said, "Why are you blushing?" Dragona turned and walked off without saying goodbye. "Hm, rude," she said.

  Israel finally grinned, "Well, now that we got rid of him, I think we should get ready to go. We're heading to Ireland, girls." Raven nodded. Kallista saluted. Israel smiled, "I think I might actually enjoy kicking the Nightmare itself in the backside." and turned, heading for one of his big boxes of grenades.

  Kallista sat on her bed, anxious all of a sudden now that she had a moment to think about everything. Several kimonos were spread out on her bed, and she was supposed to be packing. But she was too lost in thought to figure out which one to bring. A man in elegant purple robes passed by her door and saw her. He realized she was worried about something, and his green eyes softened. He knocked on her doorframe, and Kallista looked up, surprised. "Oh!" she said, seeing the highly respected Octaboona Ambrosius in her doorway. His face was lined with the years and his silver hair was tied up in a ponytail, but his eyes sparkled when she looked at them. "Hello," she said hesitantly, not knowing what he was there for.

He smiled slightly, "May I come in?"

"Yes, of course... Can I... help you with something?"

"No, thank you, Kallista." he replied, stepping in. "I was just wondering if you were alright is all."

"I'm ok." she lied before looking into his eyes again and sighing. "I'm worried about a friend of mine."

"Ah..., friends are wonderful, aren't they? Is he a close friend of yours?"

"It's a she, and yes. She's in danger, though, and I really don't know how I can help or even if it's possible." Octaboona looked down for a minute, thinking. When he looked back up, he placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "I know it's hard to believe, but just the fact that you're thinking about her- worrying about her- that helps her more than you might think. Somewhere, your friend knows there's someone who worries for her and hopes she's alright. That encourages her, gives her strength to go on. You're helping her more than you can imagine just by being her friend. If you did nothing else, you would have helped already immeasurably."

  He let a moment pass silently and took a step back, about to leave. Kallista glanced up at him, "Thank you," she said. He smiled, "You're welcome." He turned, leaving, but looked back "By the way?"

"Yes?" Kallista asked, looking up. Octaboona nodded towards her kimonos

"I like the purple one."

  Raven drew her arm back, an arrow between her fingertips. She took a breath, looking at the target thirty feet away. Her blond hair was braided to keep any loose strands from getting in her way, and her dark brown eyes narrowed. She had shot a thousand arrows before, and knew she would shoot a thousand more. Generally, she would practice at lightening fast speeds, drawing, releasing, and leaping or rolling to one side or the other in twenty seconds or less, but sometimes, she liked to go through the fundamentals of it a few times, loosen up her joints and take her time to make it perfect. She exhaled and released at the same time. The arrow flew deftly through the air and struck half-way up the shaft in the very center of the target. She smiled, always loving those perfect shots. She retrieved her arrow and returned it to the canvas hung over her shoulder.

  Now she just had to sharpen her knives, and she'd be ready.

  Gepard Valk, having taken a vacation from Ireland to Australia and decided to board with a bunch of friends and mages, strolled down one of the many hallways in Elysium Asylum, utterly bored. How did he ever think up this whole "take a break from saving the world" thing. There was nothing to do otherwise. He had already caught up on Doctor Who and House, and then he decided he would read a book. That probably would have been entertaining if it was something besides The Mating Habits of the Reptile World. Yeah, didn't turn out too well. So he had now decided to take a walk and mutter to himself slightly about the dumb villains taking too long to try to destroy something.

  Passing a door, he heard a distinct thwack. He paused for a moment outside, shrugged and opened it. A young girl with blond, braided hair turned around, smiling, and put an arrow away. Gepard grimaced. Arrows were not his forte, especially when they chose to stab through his leg.

  He closed the door, starting to turn, when Israel Elysium, the owner of this mansion, ran past him at top speed yelling, "Ruuuuuuuuuuun!" Gepard grinned, and did just that.

A minute ago

  Israel laughed and grinned just a little madly as he pulled a metal box from under his bed, which was actually a surprisingly good hiding spot. He opened it, revealing several grenades inside. His gold-flecked green eyes seems to sparkle, just a bit more. He picked up some and started attaching them to his belt, under his trenchcoat, when his phone vibrated, alerting him of a text. His hands were unfortunately full of grenades so he gripped one between his teeth and picked up his phone with the other. At that very second, Dragona burst into the room, surprising Israel, as he half leaped and half turned around, the grenade slipping from his teeth and falling to the ground. "You lied!" Dragona shouted as Israel eyes grew wide, realizing he still had the pins in his teeth. "You moron!" shouted Israel back, "Run!"

  Dragona, taken off guard, faltered, "What?" But Israel ignored him, fell to the ground, grabbed the grenade, and ran out the door. "Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!" he yelled at Gepard Valk as he passed him. He turned around a corner, saw the door he was looking for- the explosion experiment room- threw the grenade inside and fell on the door, shutting it right before it exploded. Thank goodness he had that room built close to his own. Israel sighed, and muttered, "Yeah..., I'm awesome," as Gepard appeared around the corner with a grin on his face.

  "So what was that all about?" he asked.

"Oh, well, the pins in a grenade were pulled out..."

"Great!" Gepard grinned, "By whom?"

Israel coughed. "It's not important. The point is, no one exploded, and that's always a good thing." He nodded, starting to walk back towards his room. “By the way, you were supposed to run in the other direction, you know?”

“Oh, was I? Well, if I had done that then I wouldn’t have had this opportunity to ask you two very important things, would I?”

“What? What are you going to ask me?”

“First of all, I need some world saving business, and I want to talk with you about that, so conference?”

Israel grinned, “Sure.”

“And secondly, may I hit that guy?”

Israel glanced sideways at Gepard, realized he was serious, then looked in the direction he was indicating.  “You mean Dragona?”

“Is that his name? Yes, then, Dragona. Something about his face… bothers me. It may be the hair… I’m not sure.”

Israel grinned, remembering how Dragona had burst into his room, so very unwelcome. “Go ahead.”

“Really?” Gep said, somewhat surprised. Then he smiled too, “I knew it was a good idea to be friends with you.” He walked in front of Israel, and up to Dragona who was leaning against the door to Israel’s room, wearing a scowl and a vague, confused expression.

“Hey,” Gepard said, “What’s up?” Then he punched him, right in the nose, and walked past into Israel’s room as Dragona stumbled back, yelling, “What’s that for?”

  Israel laughed and followed Gepard Valk into his room. Dragona appeared in the doorway, finger raised, and about to shout something, but he didn’t get a chance as Israel muttered, “Not right now.” And slammed the door in his face.

***

  Skyril sat in the room she had confiscated, nervous. The howls had vanished, like the werewolves had just disappeared. What had happened? Were they just being really, really quiet or were they actually gone? She couldn’t really see either of those options happening normally, but on the other hand, she wasn’t exactly in a normal world at the moment.

  She stood from where she had sat on the bed, and shifted the curtain slightly, peering out into the darkness. There was nothing, nobody that she could see. The moon was way over head, and she figured it was about midnight.

  With a sigh, she sat back down, not yet ready to face the Nightmare’s games. She felt her broken arm throbbing again, and unwrapped it as gently as possible. At first she wished there was more light to see by, but grimaced at what she could see and counted her blessings instead. There was blood and dirt and grime, she could tell that much. “Ok,” she muttered to herself, “I need water. That’s what I need. And yes, I know the first step to insanity is talking to myself, thank you very much.”

  She stood shakily, and walked to the door. Cracking it open a touch, she glanced out and listened for a full minute. Nothing. She slipped out and walked down the hall, her boots quietly tapping on hardwood floors. When she came to a door, she peered inside until she found the bathroom. When she did, she parted the curtains a tiny bit to let in some moonlight and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Hair all a mess, face tear-streaked and smeared with dirt and blood, teeth marks on one side of her neck and tears all in her clothes, not to mention the broken arm she held next to her carefully. Skyril sighed, turned on the faucets, and got to work.

 After she had washed her face and gently soaked her arm, she went back to the room she had been in and rifled through the drawers, hoping what she got wouldn’t count as stealing. She found a long sash and pulling that out, making a new makeshift sling for her arm. She pulled back her black hair into a ponytail, and threw on a black t-shirt and pants. Then she curled up on the bed, ignoring the blankets, and fell fast asleep.

***

  "So." Gepard said, "I'm basically bored out of my mind. Do you happen to know of any world threats going on right now? Or perhaps just a minor annoying ax murderer? Or possibly some nice goblins to track down? A unicorn sighting? An assassin? A piece of kelp that has come to life and is now terrorizing the world with its green, slimy-"

"Gepard!"

"Yes?"

  Israel laughed, "I'm afraid there have been no terrible kelp attacks at the moment, but there is something going on. And I woudn't mind if you accompanied us either. As a matter of fact, I think that's a good idea. Of course, you're a guest here, and I shouldn't be asking you to fly off on a brash, rash, and possibly suicidal mission to stop a monster that is actually the reason for all bad dreams in the world, that can't be tracked as far as I know, and happens to have kidnapped a good friend of mine, tortured her, and might have already killed her or worse, and soon will either destroy the world, or make everybody in it insane. And yet I seem to be asking anyway. Want to come?"

Gepard paused for only five seconds before replying with a smile, "Absolutely."

Israel nodded cheerfully, "Good. Now get packed. You have about ten minutes before we leave to Ireland."

Ten minutes later

  Kallista, Raven, Gepard, and Israel stood in the grand entrance of Elysium Asylum., "Well," Israel said, "Everybody ready? Got your guns, swords, daggers, bows, grenades, and anything else you might need?"

Octaboona entered the room. "Ah, Kallista, I see you're leaving." She turned, and smiled,

"Yes, I am." 

He nodded. "Well, I hope you find the friend you were looking for."
"Thanks, I inten-"

Dragona stormed in yelling, "You're all a bunch of liars!" He glared at Octaboona, who frowned. Kallista bored holes in Dragona, and Israel sighed. Dragona stomped up to Israel, saying, "You're all going on some top-secret mission, aren't you? Well, then, I'm going to go too!"

  Raven's eyebrows rose, "Yeah, not likely." Dragona spun on her, but then Octaboona spoke up, "Dragona, perhaps they are, but it seems that if they didn't want us to know, it was for a reason. Perhaps it's even to protect us, who knows. So lets just stay here, alright?" Dragona walked towards Octaboona, his eye narrowed.

"You know what? I don't think so, and if you're so weak as to want to stay here while they," he gestured at the four of them, "are going, then I think you ought to man up and come along as well."

Kallista tapped Dragona's shoulder, and he turned around. She grabbed him by his collar and shoved him against the wall, "Hey!" She shouted, "There is no way you're getting Octa involved in this! So if you don't want to be on my bad side then you apologize to him." She glared into his startled eyes, "Now!"

"Y-yes, Ma'am!" he stuttered, "Sorry, Octaboona, sir." Israel's eyebrows rose, and Raven's mouth formed a small 'O' shape. Gepard, on the other hand, just grinned.

"Well, alright then," she said, letting him fall in a heap. "Here," she turned slightly, having produced a pink cupcake from seemingly no where, "have a cupcake." She handed it to him as he stared up in shock. "Now," Kallista turned back to everyone, "are you guys ready, or what?"

***

  Skyril was with her father. She was eight years old and playing in the park. She laughed as she slid down the slide, jumping up right away and wanting to slide again. "Now," Her father said, "we have to go back home, sweetheart." She looked up at him unhappily. He was tall with hair as black as hers. His eyes, though, were brown, so she must have gotten her green ones from her mother. "But, Daddy! Can't I slide some more?"

"I'm sorry," he frowned, glancing at his watch, "but we need to get you back home so I can get back to work." Skyril pouted, then had an idea.

  "Daddy! I could stay here, and walk back later!"

"No, hon, your mother would kill me, honestly!" He put his big hand on her shoulder and started to guide her towards the car. She struggled, pouting, and wanting to stay at the park longer. She imagined his eyes in her mind. They were always so determined. She wished she could just stop them from staring like that. "AH!" Her father yelled all of a sudden, falling on his knees. Skyril cried out, "What's wrong? Daddy! What's wrong, Daddy?"

  He clutched his face, yelling, "I can't see! I can't see! I'm blind! What's happening to me? What did you do? What’s happened to me?"

   Skyril screamed as she sat up in bed, shaking and shivering. At first she thought she was home, but realized too soon that she was still trapped. Remembering she was alone. Remembering she was terrified.